Lonni Sue was a professional illustrator for 31 years. Her art was published by The New York Times and appeared on covers of The New Yorker magazine. She also did illustrations for The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the medical field, major corporations and the government. She illustrated many books. Her art has been recognized by the White House and the United Nations and is in the Smithsonian collection.

Suddenly, just before the 2008 New Year, Lonni Sue’s pen nearly stopped. She had been struck with a severe case of encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, and nearly died. She had to relearn how to walk, talk, and eat. Margaret Kennard Johnson, mother and fellow artist, has been helping Lonni Sue regain her art.

What is extraordinary about Lonni Sue’s case of amnesia is that, in the very area of her loss, her visual skills begin to fill in. In order to grasp the present moment, before it vanishes from memory, she urgently writes and draws. Thoughts, which would otherwise be constantly slipping away, are held on the page, where she can build ideas. In the process, she has been leaving a detailed record of her thought, for us to see. We can see creative ideas unfolding and watch shifts in her mental ability.

Professional Biography, Before Illness

Lonni Sue Johnson, Illustrator

My Work

I write, paint and draw in watercolor, oil, pastel and pen and ink. My hope is to touch people with my art on as many levels as possible. I want to make them laugh and feel good, and take delight in daily life; but also to challenge their intellect as I express my deepest values. I believe that a successful piece of art has a trio of ingredients: a good idea, the medium chosen to best express it, and the tools of composition used to express it clearly.

Education

B. F. A. School of Architecture and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan in Printmaking and Drawing.

Additional study of humorous illustration at The School of Visual Arts in NYC with Chas. B. Slackman and R.O. Blechman.

I am a third generation artist. My grandmother was a portrait painter, and college instructor. My mother, my mentor, is a printmaker who studied with Joseph Albers at Black Mountain College. She taught for twenty-three years at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. My father was a scientist and inventor for RCA and Corning Glass.

Work I have written and illustrated

Planet News, Kodansha, Japan 1995

Taking Off, a short illustrated story for Vintage Airplane April 2003

Learning To Fly, an unpublished book in progress.

Books illustrated

The Stress-Free Traveler, Sandy Paton, McGraw-Hill. July 2005

You’re The Best, Barbara Milo Ohrbach, Clarkson Potter, 2003

Fifty-Seven Reasons Not To Have A Nuclear War, Marty Asher, Warner Books, 1994

Teaching

Syracuse University Masters of Illustration, Visit to my studio in NYC

Princeton Art Association, Drawing and design class for children

The Stuart School, Princeton, NJ, preschool to 8th grade, 1974-1976

Recent Exhibitions

The United Nations Prevailing Human Spirit Sept 2002 sponsored by the Society of Illustrators, NYC

Juror of Exhibitions

Juror Central New York Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition September 2003

Juror, Society of Illustrators annual show in NYC twice, latest in 2000

Juror, Washington Art Directors Show

Inspirations come from

Music

Fly Creek Philharmonic 2001-2004, viola and chorus

Princeton University Orchestra 1967-8, viola

Theater Orchestra University of Michigan 1970-72, viola

Aviation

Private pilot, single engine land airplane, since 1996

Tail wheel sign-off 1997

President, 2002, Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter #1070

Secretary 2003, Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter #1070

Established Watercolor Airport 43NY, 1999

The Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Rhinebeck, NY Volunteer 1996-7, including a flight From LaGrangeville NY to Lakeland, Florida with another woman pilot in my Cessna 150 to help run the booth at the Sun’n Fun Fly In

Oversaw (and ordered parts) for the restoration of a 1968 Cessna 150 and a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub

My Aviation artwork has been featured by Flying Magazine at Sun’nFun and Oshkosh Fly- Ins 2003, 2004, 2005

Garden and Farm

Re-establishing a hay and dairy farm to be organic with Certification from NOFA, Northeastern Farmers Association, for organic hay, grain and vegetables; and organically-grown cattle

I work from a milk house studio in a rescued barn on a hay farm in upstate New York; with seven cats, a herd of cows and one horse, pigs and an organic vegetable garden, flowers, a small pond with fish, and a landing strip for a small yellow airplane, a 1946 Piper Cub. I have been a freelance illustrator since 1976.

Lonni Sue in her airplane, a Piper Cub, with her mother in the backseat prior to her illness.